Foreign Orders & DecorationsFrance

61 Honorary Axe awarded to seaman B.L. Ferrand.

  Silver. On the back four separately soldered eyelets for attaching the award to the uniform. On the front finely executed award engraving:

"Le 1er Consul / Au Cer.B. L. Ferrand / Matelot / Pour sa belle conduite / à St. Domingue".

The Armes d'Honneur (weapons of honor) were introduced during the Consulate (Napoleon's sole rule as First Consul) by decree of the 4th Nivôse to VIII (December 25, 1799) and of the 21st Thermidor to IX (August 9, 1801), and were intended to honor outstanding feats of arms by soldiers. These weapons of honor were marked with the name of the honored person and entitled to higher pay. The type of honorary weapon was determined by the rank of the honoree and the branch of arms in which he served.

Grenadiers and soldiers received rifles (fusils d'honneur), drummers received honorary drumsticks (baguettes d' honneur), mounted troops received muskets or carbines (mousquetons ou carabines d' honneur), Trumpeters received honorary trumpets (trompettes d' honneur), sailors received honorary axes (haches d' honneur) to be worn on the uniform, gunners received honorary grenades (grenades d'honneur) to be worn on the uniform. For particularly glorious feats of arms, honorary sabers (sabre d' honneur) were awarded together with double pay.

In total, only about 2000 honorary weapons were awarded to all branches of arms. With the exception of the honorary grenades and honorary axes, these were manufactured by the Manufacture d'Armes in Versailles.

The honorary arms were awarded with an appropriate award certificate signed by Bonaparte. All holders were legitimate Knights of the Legion of Honor and were admitted to the Order at the first promotion on the 1er Vendémiaire an XII (September 24, 1803).

The Hache d'Honneur is among the rarest of these honorary arms. Only very few specimens are known. It was sometimes  awarded in gilded version, but the nature and manufacture of the award is very poorly researched.

The example offered here is a very fine original piece of the greatest rarity.

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6.000,00